“A new trove of heavily redacted documents provided by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) exposes the massive hypocrisy of the Obama administration and the Democratic Party, which this election year have tried to co-opt and claim as their own the anti-fat-cat theme of the ‘We are the 99%’-chanting Occupiers.”

A new trove of heavily redacted documents provided by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) on behalf of filmmaker Michael Moore and the National Lawyers Guild makes it increasingly evident that there was and is a nationally coordinated campaign to disrupt and crush the Occupy Movement.

The new documents, which PCJF National Director Mara Verheyden-Hilliard insists “are likely only a subset of responsive materials,” in the possession of federal law enforcement agencies, only “scratch the surface of a mass intelligence network including Fusion Centers, saturated with 'anti-terrorism' funding, that mobilizes thousands of local and federal officers and agents to investigate and monitor the social justice movement.”

Nonetheless, blacked-out and limited though they are, she says they offer clues to the extent of the government’s concern about and focus on the wave of occupations that spread across the country beginning with last September’s Occupy Wall Street action in New York City.

The latest documents reveal “intense involvement” by the DHS’s so-called National Operations Center (NOC). In its own literature, the DHS describes the NOC as “the primary national-level hub for domestic situational awareness, common operational picture, information fusion, information sharing, communications, and coordination pertaining to the prevention of terrorist attacks and domestic incident management.”

The DHS says that the NOC is “the primary conduit for the White House Situation Room” and that it also “facilitates information sharing and operational coordination with other federal, state, local, tribal, non-governmental operation centers and the private sector.”

A better description for a fascist police state network could not be written.

Remember, this sprawling yet centralized operation -- what Verheyden-Hilliard describes as “a vast, tentacled, national intelligence and domestic spying network that the U.S. government operates against its own people” -- was in this case deployed not against some terrorist organization or even mob or drug cartel, but rather against a loose-knit band of protesters, all conscientiously and publicly committed to nonviolence, who were exercising their Constitutionally-protected right to gather in public places and to speak out against the crimes and abuses of the corporate elite and the politicians who are bought and paid by that elite.

Among the documents obtained by the PCJF in this second batch of responses to its FOIA filing is one Nov. 5, 2011 from the NOC Fusion Center Desk, which collects at the federal level and then distributes the names and contact information of a group of Occupy protesters who were arrested during a demonstration in Dallas, TX against Bank of America, one of the nation’s biggest predatory lenders. Although none of the seven arrested were charged with any serious crime (six were charged with “using the sidewalk!”), their names and contact information were widely disseminated by the DHS.

Fusion Centers, a post-9-11 creation, are a federally-funded joint project of the DHS and the US Justice Department which are designed to share intelligence information among such federal agencies as the DHS, the FBI, the CIA and the US Military, as well as state and local police agencies. By their nature they are designed to circumvent legal constraints on various agencies, for example the ban on CIA domestic spying, or the Posse Comitatus Act, which bars active military activity within the borders of the US. There are currently 72 Fusion Centers around the US.

Another group of documents shows that on November 9, two days after a demonstration by 1000 Occupy activists in Chicago protesting social service cuts in that city, the NOC Fusion Desk relayed a request from Chicago Police asking other local police agencies what kind of tactics they were using against Occupy activists. They specifically requested that information be sought from police departments in New York, Oakland, Atlanta, Washington, D.C. Denver, Boston, Portland OR, and Seattle -- all the scene of major Occupation actions and of violent police repression. Realizing that it would look bad if it assisted in such coordination overtly, higher officials in the DHS ordered the recall of the request but then simply rerouted it through “law enforcement channels,” where presumably it would be harder for anyone to spot a federal role in the coordination of local police responses. In response to that order, the documents show that the duty director of the NOC wrote that he would “reach out” to "LEO LNOs (liaison officer) on the floor" to assist. Verheyden-Hilliard explains that LEO is FBI's nationally integrated law enforcement, intelligence and military network.

On December 12, when Occupy planned anti-war protests at various US ports, Verheyden-Hilliard says the new documents show that the NOC “went into high gear” seeking information from local field offices of the Department of Homeland Security about what actions police in Houston, Portland, Oakland, Seattle, San Diego, and Los Angeles planned to deal with Occupy movement actions.

Another document shows that earlier, in advance of a planned Occupy action at the Oakland, CA port facility on Nov. 2, DHS “went so far as to keep the Pentagon’s Northcom (Northern Command) in the intelligence loop.”

Given the subterfuge revealed in these documents that went into trying to create the illusion that the DHS was and is not coordinating a national campaign of spying, disruption and repression against Occupy activists, it is almost comical to find documents that show the DHS was in “direct communication with the White House” to obtain advance approval of public statements by DHS officials denying any DHS involvement in anti-Occupy actions.

These documents show that both DHS and one of that department’s police arms, the Federal Protective Service (FPS) were in direct contact with Portland, Oregon’s police chief and mayor, discussing how to deal with protesters who were in part on federal property. The coordination between the feds and the local police and political authorities were intense. Yet the approved statement sent to DHS from the White House read:

Any decisions on how to handle specifics (sic) situations are dealt with by local authorities in that location. If a protest area is located on Federal property and has been deemed unsanitary or unsafe by the General Services Administration (GSA) or city officials, and they make a decision to evacuate participants -- the Federal Protective Service (FPS) will work with those officials to develop a plan to ensure the security and safety of everyone involved.

There was, comically, also a White House-approved DHS “background” statement, too! (Typically background statements by federal officials are supposed to be used when they want to tell a journalist the true situation but don’t want to have that statement attributed to them or their department. Having it pre-approved by the White House defeats that purpose and is simply a manipulation of the media.)

The faux “background” information included the following--a flat-out lie:

DHS is not actively coordinating with local law enforcement agencies and/or city governments concerning the evictions of Occupy encampments writ large.

Tellingly, the documents also include a Dec. 5 copy of the “Weekly Informant, ” an intelligence report published by the DHS’s Office for State and Local Law Enforcement. The issue includes an update from the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) concerning the activities of the Occupy Movement. PERF, Verheyden-Hilliard notes, is the group that the federal government claims organized a series of multi-city law enforcement calls to coordinate the police response to Occupy, which led immediately to the wave of violent crackdowns. It was at those meetings that police were advised among other things to act at night, to use aggressive tactics and weapons like tasers and pepper spray, and to take steps to remove journalists and cameras from the scene of crackdowns.

The overall sense from these latest documents is that Washington and the DHS, along with the FBI, was the nexus of the crackdown, orchestrating it, encouraging it, and attempting to cover its tracks.

The documents among other things expose the massive hypocrisy of the Obama administration and the Democratic Party, which this election year have tried to co-opt and claim as their own the anti-fat-cat theme of the “We are the 99%”-chanting Occupiers, while actually acting in the interest of Bank of America and its fellow financial sector mega-firms in trying to crush the movement itself.

FOLLOW THE MONEY .... FOLLOW THE REAL ESTATE DEALS .... FOLLOW THE MILITARY SPENDING and the Campaign Donations .... The Obama Administration and the Republicans are Deeply Deeply Deeply Responsible and INVOLVED in our National Looting .... HELLO The Government are the Guilty Ones IT is the Government equally with the Banksters and the Corporations WAKE UP Follow The Money. SEARCH THESE TERMS ....... "Bank Looting Subprime Land Fraud Colonias" Occupy wake Up Wake Up Wake Up ... http://nwopodcast.com/fetz/media/jim%20fetzer%20real%20deal-march%2028%2...

As a Democrat and as a Barack Obama support I find this to be totally unacceptable to me. I hope you feel the same way and that you let the Party and the President know exactly where you stand on this betrayal of the BASE of the Party.

Great reporting by Lindorff and koodos to the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund for their FOI request. Really no surprizes here but the confirmation really does dispell any doubts about who and what the majority are up against.

It'll be a long haul and things are going to get a lot uglier before they get better, but once the bottle has been uncorked there's no putting the ideas released back in and someday the words contained in the constitution will actually stand for their meanings.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan revealled the fact that 17 big city mayors had a conference telephone call with Obama's Dept. of Homeland Security and were instructed to violently quash the Occupy movement -- Obama doesn't want public criticism of his thieving Wall Street "Savvy Businessmen" billionaire buddies to publicly happen.

To further illustrate Obama's love of his thieving "Savvy Businessmen" buddies on Wall Street, he appointed only 55 people** recently to investigate the Wall Street thieves in response to public outrage over the situation of Obama's refusal to look back and criminally indict them.
That's an arrogantly infantile attempt at deception and Kabuki theater.
(Obama dishonestly said there's only one system of justice and that we all play by the same rules, an infantile lie.)

**Ronald Reagan on the other hand appointed thousands for each region of the country to investigate the Savings & Loan thieves and put 1200 S&L thieves in federal prison.

Obama is no friend of the 99%, and you can see that fact in the criminal prosecutions of whistleblowers rather than the thieves who are robbing the taxpayers blind. He has no intention of allowing criminal prosecutions of his thieving Wall Street "Savvy Business' billionaire buddies.

Obama and Holder have to go because they are protecting the racketeering criminal cabal of Wall Street/corporate kleptocracy in violation of their solemnly-sworn oaths of public office!

The rethugs and teabaggers have no one worth your vote since they also represent the 1%.

The plutocrats have the game fixed -- no choice except a write-in or 3rd party candidate.

Sadly, Mitt Romney would be a far greater danger than a second Obama term. It may be grasping at straws to hope Obama will begin to clean up the homeland security mess after his reelection, but there is a least a glimmer of hope. With Romney, and a Republican Congress, there is no hope whatsoever, and we will be under both the financial and political control of the top 1%. Add in a new Supreme Court Justice, certain to be Robert Bork, and you could have the end of Social Security, Medicare and Medicade.
Meanwhile, any third party or write in is a guarantee the Republicans will take total control. It would be the end of the New Deal, and the middle class along with it.
Lesser of two evils is real, real, real. There is no hope with Romney, but there is at least a glimmer of hope with Obama.

At this point, Dems are still the lesser of two evils. There would at least be a chance of getting the corrupt monetary influence out of our government if the Dems have control of the House, Senate, and White house. It's going to take time. The Civil Rights movement in the 60s got beat up by the Feds. So shall it be for the Occupy movement, but in the end, man kind will evolve. Stupid greedy people will drag their feet, trying in bain:) to hold on to the failed ways and means that they are comfortable with. But change will come to America and the world, or we will destroy ourselves and the planet. Shame on the President for allowing himself to be corrupted by the Wall Street Banksters. How can we have any respect for our government officials with this kind of thing going on. My guess is the Banksters are holding the Dems hostage monetarily. Threatening to take down the country even further economically, if they don't get their way like the pampered, spoiled children they are deap down inside? But then can we really expect anything else from psychopaths?

I believe it is very SAD that so many of these Occupiers believe they have such superior intellect, but they cannot see that the Obama administration is their enemy!

He is so far in the 1% 's pockets that he is BLIND to the Occupiers. Can the people not see that he ONLY campaigns in places where 1%'rs live? Hollywood to NYC to Chicago and then back to Hollywood, Boca Raton, and back to NYC.

He could care less about the people...Democrat, Republican, Independent. He could care less. Some have seen the light and will not vote for him again. And many of them are the Jews who voted for him and the Blacks who voted for him.

WAKE UP AMERICA!

He sees the Occupiers as his tool to get re-elected. He is using them, just like he learned from Saul Alinsky in his book "Rules For Radicals" . The Occupiers are his "useful idiots" as stated in Alinsky's book. READ IT and LEARN!

What do you expect from a group of NARCISSISTS and their minions!???
Anyone who adores Obama is/are his Narcissistic supply! Anyone who agrees with him is/are his Narcissistic supply! Anyone that goes along to get along are/is his Narcissistic supply!

Read about Malignant Narcissism! Read about Psychopaths! LEARN what you are up against!

I cannot believe I am agreeing with people on this site..but Tearlach...you are correct. Both sides of the aisle are great actors. They are making the people believe that they are at each other's throat, but in actuality, they are working together to take down the USA.... as we remember it. There is nothing wrong with Capitalism...it is CORPORATISM that you should be fighting!

And don't forget, Bush and Obama are cousins!!! The apple does not fall far from the tree!

WAKE UP AMERICA!

I will have to hold my nose again, but I will vote for Romney ...who is not much better...JUST to get Obama out.

The REAL Patriot that could clean up this mess is Ron Paul. I know...most of you think he is a kook. That is because the media and the Establishment Republicans want you to think that way. Why?

Because he would see that the corruption in Congress stops! He is the ONLY person in Congress that has refused to fall into their trap, and stomp on the Constitution.... to fill their pockets. The man won't even go on a government paid junket! He refuses to take the pension! He has NEVER voted for a pay raise. Why? Because they are against the Constitution! He is the only one in the House, right now, who took an oath and has kept it.

It would behoove all of you...no matter what party affiliation... to read up on the man! He is NOT a kook! He is the ONLY American Patriot left in the House of Representatives. And he is retiring. We will have NO ONE standing behind us, in the House of Representatives. All the so-called TEA party Republicans...at least from my state, have become turncoats and joined the establishment Republicans, and have taken away MORE of our rights under the Constitution, by Voting for the extension of the Patriot Act, NDAA, and the new Cyber security laws.

Do some research and find out WHO your REAL enemies are!

The fate of the USA is in every voter's hands this time. If you do not get out and vote.... and vote against Obama....we will be living in a Communist dictatorship....just like Venezuela, China, Cuba...Have you ever checked out how the people live in those countries? Do you really want history to repeat itself like Nazi Germany, Mussolini's Italy, the mass killing, of MILLIONS, by starvation, of the people in Russia?

Do you really want a world...a country like that?

But this may all be moot! All of it. Why, you ask? Fukushima! Something else for you to check out. Death to the whole Northern Hemisphere. You don't hear anything about it, Do you? Because the controlled media will not mention it.

And WHO controls the media?

Lots of questions....and there are answers. You just have to click on some pages to find them.

This is to be expected when you live under a false democracy/republic. The Republican Party and the Democratic Parties have sold out our country and have been for sale since at least the 80's. Why do you think that the Nazis/W.A.S.P.s call it "Homeland" security? Didn't the Nazis call Germany the "Fatherland" and the USSR called Russia their "Motherland"? Coincidental? Not when put into context. The Bushes are an example. Go research Prescott Bush and his ties with Hitler and the eugenics programs here in America!!!

Also, check out Gen. Smedley Butler, who was recruited by Prescott Bush and others to conduct a coup de etat against FDR, but instead informed the President of the treason afoot. If the President had prosecuted the traitors, then there would have been no President Bush, Sr or Jr.

Have to agree completely re: Bush family legacies....Germany, then Bush Sr. - Kuwait/Oil Interests himself.... Gulf War,..even VN, Afghn, and of coarse Iraq...of which now the big OIL is already landed and parked. "Shock Doctrine....." all over it....phew! Now China's been approved to take over some US Banks - over in California..... does not look fun long term...? hmmm thx dc http://www.allgov.com/Top_Stories/ViewNews/Federal_Reserve_Allows_First_...
AllGov - News - Federal Reserve Allows First Chinese Government Takeover of U.S. Bank
www.allgov.com

Comment with your Facebook account

Comment with your Disqus account

Top Stories

A prominent Wisconsin democrat was asked if he was aware a candidate he endorsed was a corrupt republican with ties to Scott Walker. Instead of answering, he called the cops on the guy asking him the question, having him arrested and jailed.

Inmate Chase Bellefountaine posted a photo of himself to Facebook, which led to an investigation for a cell phone. However during the investigation, law enforcement received information that Bellefountaine was involved in something more serious than possession of a cell phone.

7 Compelling Reasons Why You Should Support NationofChange

1. You’re keeping independent journalism alive
The corporate owned media has proven that it can’t be trusted. In a media landscape wrought with spin and corruption, NationofChange stands in very scarce company.

2. You’re sticking it to the rich, powerful, and corrupt
When you have money in this country you can get away with damn near anything, and they do. NationofChange isn’t afraid to expose these criminals no matter how powerful they are.

3. Your donation is 100% tax-deductible
NationofChange is a 501(c)3 charity. People tend to assume that many other organizations are (most nonprofits are NOT) but it’s that 501(c)3 status is a bit more rare than you think.